


A New Life Begun

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [11]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Christmas, Dimension Travel, Established Relationship, Established Rose Hathaway/James T. Kirk, F/M, Good Surprises, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Male Friendship, New Beginnings, New Lives, New Orleans, Old Friends, POV Kirk, Protective Kirk, Roleplay Logs, Romantic Gestures, Scared Kirk, Scared Rose, Surprised Kirk, Surprised Rose, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 23:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7011763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk and Rose arrive in New Orleans on Christmas Day, not sure exactly where they are or how they ended up there, but they soon realize they're lucky enough to be somewhere among old friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Life Begun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So this was an expansion of one of the kiss drabbles from "[May Your Star Guide You To Walk In The Right Path ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5360438)" that **sideofrawr** had asked for, from when Kirk and Rose first arrive in NOLA. She's been asking for it for a while and I _just_ got around to doing it so hopefully that's okay.

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

She was trying to make a joke, trying to laugh it off, but he could hear a tremor of fear in her voice. At least they were together. If this was Seal hijinks, at least they were dealing with it together as opposed to alone. Thank God for small favors and all that.

He reached over for her hand and grasped it tightly before bringing her knuckles to his lips and kissing them. He’d figure it out. He’d keep her safe. Granted, any physical fighting and she could probably handle it, and do a damn better job, but he’d try and protect her. He wanted to keep her safe, as much as he could.

He wasn’t sure what he’d do if anything happened to her.

But whatever it was they were facing now, at least they’d face it together. That was something. He ran his thumb over her knuckles and then looked around. “We should figure out where we are if we’re not in Kansas,” he said.

“Yeah,” Rose said, moving closer to Kirk. He let her for a moment, almost tempted to let go of his hand to wrap his arms around her, but he knew her. She’d want to appear strong. If she was cracking jokes and trying to laugh it off even though she was scared shitless she wasn’t going to want him to do anything to make it look like she was weak. But if she moved closer, he’d let her stay close for a moment before they headed over to sit somewhere and figure out where the hell they were and what the hell was going on.

Finally, she moved away again ad he led them towards a restaurant. He saw a small newsstand that had free local papers and stopped in front of it, letting go of her hand to pull out a paper. “Well, it looks like we’re in New Orleans and it’s...” He scanned the newspaper for a date. “Sometime around Christmas, 2014.”

“So we went back in the past?” Rose asked, surprised.

“Looks like,” he said. “But I have cash in my wallet so we can at least sit here at this restaurant and see if our phones work or if we ended up somewhere where we’re screwed like some of the places the Seal sent us to.”

Rose nodded and then reached for his hand again. The grip she had on it was tight and he had the feeling until they had answers or at the very least until they sat down she’d have a death grip on his hand. He looked up and saw they were at Cafe Du Monde. They turned towards the door and headed inside, and made their way to order a few things. Rose’s eyes lit up a bit when she saw the beignets, and they got some of those and some coffee before moving to a table.

After a moment, Kirk pulled out his mobile and began looking for some kind of network that they suddenly had access to. The one from Lawrence was gone, and he had the feeling that meant that whatever had brought them to this place, whether it was the Seal or something else, intended on keeping them here. But after a moment, a new network popped up And he saw posts from two familiar faces. “Looks like we know people here,” he said, a knot in his stomach relaxing.

“Who?” Rose asked, wiping powdered sugar from her mouth.

“Bones and Molly are both here,” he said. He scrolled down a bit. “And look. Regina’s here…Robin, too. And Zane...Clara...” He felt himself grin. “Spock! Spock’s here!”

“Well, then let them know we’re here,” she said, nudging her boyfriend. He could see she had a grin on her face, as though she was cautiously optimistic about things. He began keying in a message to the boards in general, letting people know that he and Rose were there, and then keying in private messages to Regina and Robin and Bones and Spock. Soon he was hearing the alerts on his cell phone that he was getting emails, and after she was done with her first beignet Rose jumped in on the conversation.

Within ten minutes Bones had told them that he’d come get them in a few minutes and he was damn glad they were there, and Regina said there was the guest suite waiting for them and everyone considered it the best damn Christmas present they could have hoped for and so they were fielding five different Christmas dinner invitations that evening. He slowly felt himself relax even as it sank in that this was a place where they were going to be staying for quite a long time; going back to Lawrence was going to be impossible.

He went back up to the counter and tested out his credit card, pleased to find it still worked. He bought enough beignets to feed Rose, him, and Bones and Molly while they caught up on just what the hell had happened to the two of them in the year and a half or so that Bones and Molly had been in New Orleans without them since Bones was going to take the two of them to the cabin where Molly was living to catch up. He went back over to Rose and she reached into the bag to take out another beignet. “Credit card worked?” she asked.

Kirk nodded. “Looks like you’re still dating a very rich man,” he said.

“I wouldn’t have cared if you were a very poor man,” she said. “But I’m glad you’re not.” She looked over at him and saw he was frowning slightly. “Are you okay?”

“I just...we’re stuck here, and everything we wanted is back at home. I know things show up, like Bones had said. I mean, my money is here, but...I just wish Chekov and Spock were here. Last I remember, Ward had them because of the earthquake, and...”

Rose nodded, reaching over and squeezing his uncasted hand. “I know. I’m sorry about that. Maybe you’ll be lucky and they’ll be here?”

“Maybe,” he said. After a moment they lapsed into a companionable silence, going back to their cell phones and continuing conversations with friends that had been there for a time and new people who had heard stories of the two of them, and then it seemed that too soon Bones arrived. Kirk looked up and gave him a wide grin. “You look well taken care of.”

“Yeah, well, Molly insisted,” he said with a grin before going up and embracing Kirk. “You took your damn time getting here. Be thankful you missed the hell that was the movie.”

Kirk’s eyes widened. “You had to live through that?”

“Molly and I both. Wasn’t fun, but we’re both better now,” he said. “Helps that we had each other to lean on.” He gestured to the bag of beignets. “You leave any for us?”

Rose looked guilty. “A few.”

Bones shook his head and gave her a grin. “Addicting, aren’t they? I’ll get some more before we head to the cabin. Gimmie a sec.”

Bones headed to the counter to buy more of the pastries and Kirk moved over to her, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Do you feel better now?” he asked.

Rose nodded. “Much,” she said. “Now that I’ve seen one of our friends, and we know it’s someone from Lawrence, it helps.” She slid an arm around his waist and leaned into him, a rare public display of affection. “Thanks for not freaking out on me earlier.”

“Hey, I know you well enough to know it would have been the worst thing to do,” he said, turning his head to press a kiss in her hair. She shook her head slightly and then rolled her eyes. “We’ll get settled later but for now, let’s try and enjoy today and have a good Christmas, all right?”

Rose nodded. “All right,” she said. She looked around a bit and then leaned in and kissed him, and he kissed her back, enjoying the moment. It was going to take some time to adjust, but they would because they were together and they could lean on each other. As long as they could do that, he figured they’d be just fine.


End file.
